Daniel Ricciardo utilised break to build fitness ahead of second half of F1 season

Daniel Ricciardo has utilised his summer break to enhance his racing fitness after he was parachuted in to replace Nyck de Vries in July. 

The beloved Australian Honey Badger was absent this year after his contract was cut early at McLaren last year following a torrid time at the Woking outfit. 

After some time with his old Red Bull family, Ricciardo was parachuted into Alpha Tauri to replace de Vries after 10 races.

After two races back in the saddle of Formula 1 machinery, Ricciardo has used the summer break to enhance his fitness and is set ‘to attack the second half of the season.’ Ahead of the Dutch Grand Prix, the Australian said:

“I’m very excited about racing at Zandvoort, mainly to get the second half of the season going.

“I only got to do the two races before the break, so even if I enjoyed a bit of time off, I spent most of the past few weeks training and enjoying the chance to keep building up my fitness, to be all set to attack the second half of the season.”

Since Ricciardo jumped back into the cockpit of an F1 car, he has shown steady performances despite being out of the sport for seven months.

In his first race, in Hungary, Ricciardo out-qualified his new teammate Yuki Tsuonda with a 13th place start, compared to Tsunoda’s 17th finish in qualifying. Despite being involved in the first-corner collision, at the start of the race, Ricciardo worked his way back up to finish where he started whereas his teammate finished 15th. 

At Belgium’s Spa-Francorchamps, a week later, the Honey Badger failed to make it out of Q1 and failed to make it into the points (finishing P16) while his teammate managed to make it into Q2 and picked up a single point (in P10) at the end of the race. 

With improved fitness, Ricciardo stated he has enjoyed his time being back and is now ‘motivated’ ahead of the second half of the season. He said:

“I’ve really enjoyed being back, and the two races with the team have been awesome.

“I’ve really enjoyed being back, and the two races with the team have been awesome. Now, I’m very hungry and motivated and feel the way I want to feel. That’s why I’m looking forward to kicking off in Zandvoort, which is a very fast track with an awesome atmosphere.”

Following the Pirelli tyre test after the British Grand Prix, and his first run with an F1 car since his departure from McLaren, Ricciardo was the logical choice to replace de Vries at Alpha Tauri. 

They did have an option in Liam Lawson to replace the under-performing Dutchman but the higher-ups at Red Bull wanted to leave the New Zealander to continue his championship fight in the Japanese Super Formula series.  

The Kiwi – driving for Team Mugen – currently stands in second place in the Super Formula drivers standings, on 86 points, eight points behind Vantelin Team TOM’s championship leader Ritomo Miyata (94pts) with one race left to determine the championship.

That’s all for the article: Daniel Ricciardo utilised break to build fitness ahead of second half of F1 season!

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Kamron Kent

Hi, I’m Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion.

I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I’ve loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.

Kamron Kent

Hi, I'm Kamron. I created ApexMotorsports.co.uk in the dying embers of the 2021 Formula 1 world championship. It allowed me freedom to write whatever I wanted to write about which was all things motorsports, my passion. I have put a lot of effort in over the years to keep this website in its best shape and I've loved seeing the brand grow consistently, month-on-month, year-on-year. My ambition is to keep watching this brand grow into a primary outlet of news for all things motorsports whilst fueling my desire to pursue a career in sports journalism, specialising in motorsports.